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MICHIGAN AS A PROVINCE 1 - 5
He had been granted an estate in the former locality which included the island and a considerable tract on the adjacent mainland, and here his oldest children, Madeleine and Antoine were born. Subsequently his removal to Port Royal was doubtless for the greater security of his family, on account of the troublesome incursions of the English. He established his dwelling at Port Royal and was himself employed with Francis Guyon, the uncle of his wife, in privateering along the Atlantic coast. In 1690 Sir William Phipps, governor of Massachusetts, organized an expedition in support of the English and attacked and destroyed Port Royal. Cadillac's home was among those burned. His family were taken prisoners but afterward released and permitted to return to Quebec. Here the husband and father later joined them.
Cadillac had evidently commended himself to the powers that be as an able and resourceful man of affairs, and in 1694 Frontenac designated him as commandant and sent him to Michilimackinac to deal with some
matters of importance. The English were a constant thorn in the flesh to the French; not only in the maritime provinces, but in the far distant posts of the west their influence was felt among the fur traders and the Indian tribes. The three years which Cadillac spent at Michilimackinac convinced him that the interests of the French would be best served by establishing a strong colony near the head of Lake Erie and thus stop the English encroachments much nearer their source. He contemplated not merely a military post with a numerous garrison, but in addition a large colony of permanent settlers. His mind also took in the policy of undertaking to civilize the Indians by attaching them to such a settlement, teaching them agriculture and other useful arts, instructing them in the French language, overcoming their wandering and improvident habits and making of them good and useful citizens. This may have been somewhat visionary, but it speaks well for his philanthropy.
MICHIGAN
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